Cycling is hard; I’m not leaking any trade secrets with that statement, but it feels good to say it anyway. No Cyclist avoids suffering, but of those who venture into our world, there are some who seek to limit it while others choose to embrace it. Then we have a handful of characters who consider playing Whack-a-Mole with the Man with the Hammer to be good sport, particularly when playing the part of Mole.
In the current climate, it’s impossible not to consider the impact doping has on our sport. I, for one, have happily watched professional bike racing and delighted in the spectacle for close to thirty years, aware to varying degrees that doping is part and parcel of that spectacle I enjoy so much. In the last decade, I’ve gone so far as to assume most – if not all – riders are doping; a regrettable situation but one which has done little to temper my enthusiasm for the sport. After all, when all the riders are doing it, then surely what we’re watching is a level playing field of willing participants who understand how the game is played. Cheaters cheating cheaters hardly seems like cheating.
It’s all beautifully romantic so long as all the riders are doping. This is not the case, however; there are those who are racing clean against dopers. These riders are truly being cheated out of a livelihood by a culture which not only turns a blind eye to cheating, but who ostracize those who don’t. These riders who refuse to dope have few voices and last week, the sport lost one of the most forward of these with the retirement of Nicole Cooke.
Nicole has been a force in Women’s Cycling since turning Pro in 2002. A powerful rouleur, she excelled in every terrain and in any race format, but was nigh unbeatable in uphill finishes, taking a total of three La Fléche Wallonne Féminine titles, each of which required such a large laying of The V that it brought her to collapse. I was aware of her as much as anyone can be with the state of the coverage of Women’s Cycling, but she became one of my favorite riders after reading a piece in Rouleur about my favorite hub manufacturer, Royce. In the article, Royce’s Cliff Polton described being at a trade show when a young girl better described as a ball of loosely-contained energy bounded up on his booth and started asking about bottom bracket axles and wondering aloud if he could help her achieve her goal of becoming the wolds most dominant female cyclist.
Given what I understand of her personality, I get the feeling it was more like executing a plan than achieving a goal.
Cooke raced at the top of her sport for thirteen years; she scaled the heights of achievement with wins in every major race on the calendar including the Ronde van Vlaanderen voor Vrouwen, La Fleche, the Giro d’Italia Femminile and Grand Boucle (women’s Tour de France), the Olympic Road Race, and the World Championship Road Race. What’s more, she accomplished it while remaining staunchly anti-doping to the point that she faced sackings for refusing doping products.
Anyone who is a fan of Cycling should read Nicole’s retirement statement – I could never do it justice here. My personal hopes for the Pharmstrong Legacy is that it yields a a blood letting in the UCI and that the energy it spends on covering up its own corruption goes instead into promoting Women’s Cycling.
I’m sad to see Nicole go. Yet, for a rider who thrived in the hardest conditions and who unyieldingly stuck to her principles, I find it very fitting that the final two wins of her career came in Stages V of the Giro Femminile and Energiewacht Tour, respectively. Bravo, Nicole.
Here is the finale of her last Giro stage win:
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@Gianni
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy you the faster bike to look for it on. And lots of time off work to ride that really nice fucking bike.
@frank
Thanks for the article--great to hear the female perspective. See also http://inrng.com/2012/10/level-playing-field-doping-myth/ for more discussion on the level playing field myth.
@Marko
This.
I had no idea what has gone on in women's cycling during her time, it is DISGRACEFUL, that was telling it how it is, and if she was a guy we would be lauding him for his courage and honesty. Some how this is whinging? @Deakus you've been chicked!
@Deakus
Disagree absolutely. This has plenty of class. She's telling it like it is, and it isn't pretty. There's little UCI support, teams don't feel like they owe contracted wages to riders and if you push, you're labelled as 'difficult'. Drug users are thieves. How many male cyclists talk this plainly? Or is 'classy' to eat shit and grin about it?
I have great respect for Nicole Cooke, and indeed any sportsperson who suffers for their sport, but there are two issues here - one is drugs, where I agree with her entirely, and the other is equality of reward where I don't, although I do accept that the UCI has a role in at least regulating teams and making sure riders are treated properly.
So those who want should go ahead and flame me, and no doubt those who already think I'm a cunt can chalk up yet further proof...
Sport isnot rewarded financially according to work and effort or even talent. The argument that any of those pro-women would kick my ass up and down the Valkenburg is irrelevant. There are plenty of sports where people put in many, many hours of hard work but can't make a living. Even high profile sports like swimming - unless you are one of the very top multiple-medal-winning swimmers. I'm sure greco-roman wrestling is much harder than football, golf or tennis but that's just the way it is.
Most sports are on the level that people do because they love them or are good at them and if they are lucky they get something out of it but mostly it is more intrinsic rewards, glory, satisfaction etc.
Then there are sports that are on the business level, supported by sponsors and commercial interests. At this level it is a simple decision for the person laying out the money - "If I sponsor this team/event/person etc am I getting my brand in front of my target audience ?"
Quite simply women's sport in general, with some exceptions, does not get to the target audiences the sponsors are looking for. The cycling audience is predominantly male, and sponsors mainly get to them through the male events and teams. Women aren't even interested in women's sport by and large so the natural alliance that might come from sponsors looking for a different audience segment doesn't come into existence.
Nobody can demand to earn a living from a sport. Earning a living means producing something that somebody else will pay for - riders like Nicole Cooke can and did deliver blood, sweat and tears by the bucketload and deserve great admiration and respect for it, but it will be rewarded according to its commercial value.
What was disappointing was that Lizzie Armistead has used Cooke's statement to go on the attack- against Cooke. If Cooke had said that the sky is blue Armistead would have spoken up pointing out that it is neon pink...
@ChrisO women's sport, in general, has a Catch 22 problem. People will claim they don't watch it because it is of lower quality. It therefore doesn't get coverage. Without coverage, it can't hope to get advertising. Without advertising it doesn't get money. This means less for coaching and development as well as wages. This does then mean it is of lower quality.
I know there are many knuckledrgaggers, but to be honest, I reckon most "sportsfans" would, if the loop could be broken, cheerfully watch women's sports. Women's tennis gets audiences on a par with men's- and the prizes, tournament status, sponsorship etc are certainly the biggest for any women's sport.
@ChrisO
@Al__S
Those two have been at each others throats for some time. In the lead up to the Olympics there was a whole bunch of shit flying around about who would be the front runner on the road race and who would have to tow the line....there has been no love lost between them. I am not sure who the "Aggressor" was but these divisions are just more of the shifting undercurrents that have been rumbling away in the GB womens team for a while, and the pretty much peaked in the lead up to the Olympics...
@ChrisO
Nobody can demand to earn a living from a sport. Earning a living means producing something that somebody else will pay for - riders like Nicole Cooke can and did deliver blood, sweat and tears by the bucketload and deserve great admiration and respect for it, but it will be rewarded according to its commercial value.
You summarised it better than I could!